The borrower's guru for financial freedom

Statistics show that out of 10 individuals working in Singapore today, 6 are citizens of the country, 1 is a permanent resident (or immigrant) and the remaining 3 are usually expats or aliens from a foreign soil. It seems that Singapore is one of the few countries in Southeast, where foreigners are quite attracted to reside or to start a new life in. The main reason for this is the benefits and privileges that Singapore gives her foreign residents.

The Singapore Economic Development Board or SEDB have continued to draw foreigners into the country by giving them almost the same privilege a natural born citizen enjoys and this in turn have encouraged these aliens to contribute to the country’s economic growth. Today these foreign residents enjoy most of the rights and duties of Singaporean Citizens like eligibility for government-sponsored housing, adult national services, and more importantly, access to apply for foreigner loans to any financial institution of the country.

One of the most common loan applications filed by alien residents of Singapore is a home mortgage loan. However, there are some limitations on the loan that is prescribed for foreign residents, but the process and approval waiting time is the same as that of a natural born citizen. One limitation is that foreigners are only allowed to have 70 to 80% leverage from major banks in Singapore but they can acquire a loan of more than 80% of the total cost of the property but this will depend entirely between the agreement reached by the moneylending company Singapore and the borrower. Foreign residents here in Singapore today are given flexible policies when it comes to purchasing properties. For instance, there are properties that carry some restrictions when being sold, but foreigners are given access to these types of properties as long as they can get approval from the national government’s land authority department.

Any type of loans for alien residents in Singapore is quite easy to apply for and if one qualifies, he or she only needs to submit few key documents such as work permits, national identification card, Salaries and other work related documents. The loan is treated by the lender as just like any other type of financial assistance where an interest is placed on the loan and a repayment term is stipulated for the borrower to follow. One drawback however is that most foreigner loans will have a slightly higher than normal interest rate and this is because of the assumption that most alien residents will not be able to easily offer any form of collateral.

The repayment period for this type of a bank loan is also shorter that standard loans provided to Singaporean citizens. This is usually the case with expats and other types of foreign workers whose stay in the country is a short one. In general, however, the amount of repayment time given to a foreigner for his loan will depend entirely on the amount of money that he or she has borrowed, the less money provided for the loan, the shorter time is required to pay it back.